Centre for Civic Education (CCE) finds as difficult to understand that the Basic State Prosecution in Niksic did not find the basis for initiating proceedings, based on the criminal charges filed by the CCE against persons responsible for unlawful conduct in the operations of the Faculty of Philosophy of University of Montenegro (UoM).

For a reason unknown to the CCE, Prosecutor’s Office took more than three years to make such a decision, although the deadline for acting on charge is three months, and due to the complexity of the case may be six months, which is why the principle of timely decision-making has been violated. It is also worth noting that the notice of Basic State Prosecution in Niksic regarding the dismissal of the criminal charge traveled from Niksic to Podgorica for almost three months or as much as it was realistically necessary for the Prosecutor’s Office to decide on the merits of the criminal charge. »

Coalition of NGOs Cooperation to the Goal calls upon the Ministry of Finance and the Government of Montenegro to urgently fulfill their legal obligations and to adopt the Decree on co-funding of EU projects for domestic non-governmental organizations. Taking into the account that EU grants require co-financing from each beneficiary, the state has committed itself to support NGO projects that have successfully passed challenging and complex EU competitions.

The Ministry and the Government should have implemented this obligation immediately after the entry into force of the Law Amending the Law on Non-Governmental Organizations, as early as January 2018. The draft of the Decree was at the public debate already in July 2017, meaning that the text of this Decree has been completed and that there is nothing, except the eventually political background, to delay its adoption for so long.  »

Centre for Civic Education (CCE) condemns the announced memorial service for the former leader of the Chetnik movement Draza Mihajlovic, organized by Srpski Soko (Serbian Falcon), which will be served by the clergy of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral. Such an act seriously damages the already threatened anti-fascist spirit of Montenegro, which has been painstakingly built and which we all have to conserve.

Such events also cannot contribute to the needed social harmony. It is an undeniable historical fact that Draza Mihajlovic was an associate of the fascist occupying forces. Celebrating him in any organisation or institution is intolerable and insulting to all of those who courageously gave their lives during the anti-fascist fight, to all of those who resisted the evil that Nazism and Fascism represented, but also to those who still preserve antifascist heritage. »

On the occasion of July 11, the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial Day, the regional Coalition for RECOM pays tribute to the victims and calls for acceptance of the facts about the genocide determined in court and published in numerous judgements of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), as well as in judgements by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

»

A firm pledge by the Presidents of Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Macedonia that the Prime ministers of the aforementioned countries would sign the Declaration on the Establishment of RECOM at the London Summit on 10 July 2018 has not produced the expected results.  By 7 July 2018, the Coalition had not received the decisions of the governments of all the aforementioned countries, which led the summit organizer, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, to exclude the planned item – the Declaration on RECOM – from the summit agenda.

The signing of the Declaration on RECOM is conceived as a demonstration of the willingness of the leaders of the post-Yugoslav countries to deal with the recent past by establishing the facts about the war crimes and victims, as well as a call to the remaining post-Yugoslav countries – Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Slovenia – jointly to bear the burden of the past and contribute to the development of a culture of compassion and respect for all the victims of the 1990s wars.

The Coalition for RECOM continues its cooperation and coordination with the post-Yugoslav countries in relation to the establishment of RECOM.

Coalition for RECOM